After a surgical instrument has been manufactured, and/or after a surgical instrument has been used during a surgical procedure, the surgical instrument can be subjected to physical sterilization and/or chemical sterilization in order to kill or eliminate transmissible agents thereon. Physical sterilization can include gamma radiation sterilization which can be suitable in many circumstances. In some circumstances, however, gamma radiation can damage the electronic components and/or power source, for example, of a surgical instrument. As a result, the options available to sterilize such surgical instruments can be limited to heat or steam sterilization and/or chemical sterilization, such as ethylene oxide, ozone, and/or hydrogen peroxide, for example. While such options are suitable in many circumstances, they may be more expensive and/or time-consuming to perform as compared gamma radiation sterilization, for example. In other instances, the electronic components and/or the power source may not be subjected to sterilization to a level in which they can be openly exposed in an operating room during a surgical procedure. What is needed is an improvement over the foregoing.
The foregoing discussion is intended only to illustrate some of the shortcomings present in the field of the disclosure at the time, and should not be taken as a disavowal of claim scope.